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Dec 16, 2025, 07:25 AM ETManchester United captain Bruno Fernandes has claimed “the club wanted me to go” when Al Hilal made a big-money bid to sign him in the summer.The Saudi Pro League club were reportedly willing to pay £100 million for the 31-year-old midfielder, offering the Portugal international wages of up to £700,000 a week, but Fernandes ultimately stayed at Old Trafford after talks with manager Ruben Amorim.In an interview with Canal 11, a channel owned by the Portuguese football federation, Fernandes has said he felt senior figures at United were keen to cash in.”I could have left…

Dec 16, 2025, 07:08 AM ETBrendan Rodgers was named on Tuesday as the manager of Saudi Pro League side Al Qadsiah, six weeks after resigning from Scottish champion Celtic.Al Qadsiah, whose squad includes Italian striker Mateo Retegui and former Real Madrid defender Nacho, is in fifth place in the Saudi Pro League in their first season after promotion.Rodgers departed Celtic on Oct. 27 under a cloud, his second spell in charge damaged by scathing criticism from major shareholder Dermot Desmond that Rodgers’ conduct had been “divisive, misleading, and self-serving” and that he “contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club.”Brendan…

Bruno Fernandes has claimed Manchester United bosses wanted to cash in on him in the summer but lacked the courage to defy Ruben Amorim.The United captain, who could have joined Saudi Pro League club Al Hilal for £100m, said he was “hurt” and “sad” about how the situation had been handled in an interview with Portuguese TV station Canal 11. Sky Sports News understands the club’s leadership were clear with Fernandes throughout the summer – and remain adamant – that he is part of their plans and they have no desire to sell him. Fernandes said in October that United’s…

The turbulent inter-war years of the 20th century are crowded with historical non-fiction about the Islamic world.  And yet, in his debut The Indian Caliphate: Exiled Ottomans and the Billionaire Prince, Middle East Eye journalist Imran Mulla delightfully fleshes out an intriguing, unexplored episode from that period. The resounding defeat of the Ottomans, who fought alongside the Germans during World War I, led to the carving up of territories across the Middle East by European colonial powers, as well as the founding of the modern Turkish state. It also brought to an end the caliphate, the 1,300-year-old institution in which the leader…

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Lithuanian authorities said Tuesday they had arrested 21 people allegedly connected to a criminal network that smuggled cigarettes using specially equipped weather balloons from Russia-allied Belarus which have violated the Baltic country’s airspace in recent weeks.Investigators conducted more than 80 searches, seizing cigarettes with Belarusian excise stamps, SIM cards, communication and tracking signal jammers and firearms among other things, the Lithuanian general prosecutor’s office said in a statement. Luxury cars and valuable property were also confiscated. Lithuania earlier this month declared a national emergency over security risks posed by the meteorological balloons sent from Belarus.The balloons…

Dec 16, 2025, 06:14 AM ETBarcelona are following Aston Villa defender Pau Torres after making the signing of a left-sided centre-back a priority for next summer, various sources have told ESPN.The departure of Iñigo Martínez to Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr earlier this year saw coach Hansi Flick lose a key figure from last season’s backline.Barça currently have Pau Cubarsí, Ronald Araújo, Eric García and Andreas Christensen as options to play in the middle of the defence, but Flick has struggled to find a consistent pairing this season.Pau Torres is a key player for Unai Emery at Aston Villa. GettyIn…

LONDON (AP) — Britain on Tuesday launched a review into foreign financial interference in U.K. politics, after a British former member of the European Parliament was jailed for taking Russian bribes.Nathan Gill was sentenced last month to more than 10 years in prison for making statements sympathetic to Russia in exchange for money.Gill sat in the European Union legislature for two hard-right parties led by Nigel Farage, UKIP and the Brexit Party. After Britain’s exit from the EU in 2020 he became the leader in Wales of Farage’s current party, Reform UK. He is no longer a party member.Housing, Communities…

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A leading Muslim civil rights group in the U.S. has sued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over his order designating it and another organization as a “ foreign terrorist organization,” saying the directive was unconstitutional.The Council on American-Islamic Relations, known as CAIR, has more than 20 chapters across the United States and its work involves legal actions, advocacy and education outreach.The lawsuit was filed late Monday by the CAIR-Foundation and CAIR-Florida, its affiliate in the state. The suit asked a federal judge in Tallahassee to declare DeSantis’ order unlawful and unconstitutional and prevent it from being enforced.“He…

ROME (AP) — Rome opened two subway stations on Tuesday — one deep beneath the Colosseum — that mix the modernity of high-tech transport with artifacts from an ancient era.Commuters and tourists entering the station beside the iconic amphitheater can view displays of ceramic vases and plates, stone wells and suspended buckets, as well as the ruins of a cold plunge pool and thermal bath from a first-century dwelling. Screens show the excavation process — serving both to delight archaeology enthusiasts, and justify why it has taken so long to open the station.The multibillion-euro Metro C subway line has been…

GENEVA (AP) — More than 17 million people in Afghanistan are facing crisis levels of hunger in the coming winter months, the leading international authority on hunger crises and the U.N. food aid agency warned Tuesday.The number at risk is some 3 million more than a year ago.Economic woes, recurrent drought, shrinking international aid and and influx of Afghans returning home from countries like neighboring Iran and Pakistan have strained resources and added to the pressures on food security, reports the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, known as IPC, which tracks hunger crises.“What the IPC tells us is that more…